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I wonder how much this generalizes across cultures. Early-modern Brits weren’t known for their hygiene, nutrition, or general medical aptitude.

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Compared to who? Modern day, of course they weren't. 1500's Britain was quite poor, but not more so than many other places.

If you look at the general populace for basically anywhere before modern times, they all had bad hygiene nutrition and medial aptitude by modern standards. Looking at what the 0.1% could manage doesn't tell you much about a society.

Not compared to present day, no, but most of the folks who interacted with Europeans at that time (including the natives in the Americas) commented on how sickly they looked and how badly they smelled. Nobody was springtime fresh, but early modern Brits were apparently notable even then.

Very true, and let’s not forget inbreeding

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